Reference no: EM133383549
An essay about a short story
Length: 4-5 double-spaced pages. More is fine if you're writing concisely (don't pad!).
Goal: The purpose of this essay is for you to practice "close reading" and making a literary argument. Close reading asks you to slowly, carefully observe and analyze the details of a text or movie; through this careful reading, you will start to notice how an author or director uses formal strategies to achieve particular effects. And through this noticing, you will find the material you need to start making an argument--in this case, about how a director or fiction writer conveys states of mind.
Audience: For this essay, picture a classmate who has read Hemon and is also familiar with the film/literary concepts we've covered so far, but who hasn't thought about Hemon as much as you have, nor in the particular way you are. So: keep plot summary to an absolute minimum. Don't waste valuable space with that.
"Blind Jozef Pronek & Dead Souls."
This long short story is by the Bosnian-born writer Aleksandar Hemon. It depicts a situation of exile-essentially, of being an unintentional refugee-that is similar to Hemon's own. Hemon (born in Sarajevo in 1964) first came to the U.S. in 1992; while he was visiting, the Bosnian War started, and he was effectively stranded in the US. The story begins as Pronek arrives in the US for a visit (on some kind of friendly exchange program) and while he's in the US, the Bosnia-Serbian conflict starts; he is stranded in the US.
Obviously a lot of this story is satirical and caricatured (almost all the Americans whom Pronek meets are stereotypical caricatures of Americans: jingoistic, loud, fond of American football, not well-informed about other countries). And yet this story also gives us a sense of what Pronek's inner life is like, and that inner life isn't caricatured. The question your essay should answer is:
How does Hemon portray Pronek's inner life (his mind and emotions and perceptions)?
To answer this question, start by thinking about how you would summarize Pronek as a person, and what he's going through--how he sees himself, how he sees the rest of the world, etc. Then, think about where in the story you would go for evidence of your view.
Whatever you argue, make sure it is attached to detailed noticing: pick concrete words/phrases/sentences to quote and explain. Your essay should have a clear thesis explaining the state of mind Pronek conveys; the rest of the paper should give evidence for this thesis, by quoting from, describing, and analyzing Hemon's language.
Below are five categories; each will be worth, at most, 20 points, for a possible total of 100 points.
Topic and main point. Topic: Is the topic focused and manageable? Main point: Does the essay make a clearly stated, persuasive, meaningful, interesting, and fully developed point about Quo Vadis, Aida? or "Blind Jozef Pronek & Dead Souls"?
Detail: Does the writer discuss specific details from their movie/story? Do they have a rationale for the details they single out (in other words, do their details strengthen the argument)? Is the essay both noticing details and analyzing the significance of the details noticed?
Organization: Is the essay's progression meaningful and clear? In other words, has the writer developed a way of organizing the paragraphs so as to help orient and persuade the reader?
Concision: Is the writer's prose as efficient as possible? Does the writer make each of their sentences add something new to the paper, or is the language somewhat repetitive or redundant?
Mechanics: Does the writer use words, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation that are appropriate for standard written English? Do they use paragraph breaks? Has the writer proofread the essay? If the author uses any other sources beyond Žbanic or Hemon, do they include clear citations appropriate for a humanities essay?